HelpfulGardener.com

Hello all! I posted a few months ago about wanting to build a trellis and add a flowering vine to add some color to my porch. I recieved some great responses and unfortunately forgot to respond and thank you all. I ended up choosing a Morning Glory vine. Though my heart was set on the heavenly blue, grandpa otts was the only seed I could find locally.

Now I have questions, as I do not often plant from seed. I have chipped the seeds and placed them in lukewarm water. I am going to plant them into peat pots tonight. I will have 7 total. I have a few questions, the first being will the rain kill my plants? Here it is not uncommon for us to get excessive amounts of rain and I am worried that it will kill them off once I plant the peat pots into the planter box. My second questions is, how many plant should I plant for full cover of my trellis? My planter box is 3 ft long and 1 ft wide, with the trellis extending 6 ft high. I'm scared I will over crowd them.

To start with, do NOT plant the peat pots in the planter. They say they are biodegradable, but they don't break down in time to keep from smothering the plant roots. Peel/ cut the peat pot off and just plant the root ball.

How bad the "excessive rain" is for the plants depends on how fast draining your soil mix is. If you are concerned, mix some coarse sand or some cactus soil mix into your potting soil, up to 50:50 and be sure you have plenty of drainage holes and your pots are not sitting flat on the ground. If you do that, they should be fine, even with a lot of rain.

I'm guessing one plant per foot would be enough for decent coverage, but you could go up to twice that many.

Thank you! I will be sure to not plant the peat pot directly! We gets a lot of rain sometimes, and I was considering just getting a large tarp, but we also get slammed by severe weather so a tarp may not hold. I'm going to do the soil mixture. Theres also about a 5 inch gap with a screen at the bottom for a lot of drainage.The box is elevated a few inches off the ground. I had to put wheels on it so that I could wheel it in and out of the sun when needed. Although they enjoy the sun, I have had even the hardiest of plants wilt and die on my porch.